Sustainable Coffee Roastery - Video

THE UK’s Costa Coffee company opened its new £38m roastery, which Costa claims is "one of the most sustainable industrial buildings in the world”.

The 85,690 sq ft facility is now Europe’s biggest coffee roastery, based in Basildon, Essex, and has quadrupled Costa’s roasting capacity to 45,000 tonnes annually. This will deliver around 2.1bn cups of coffee each year.

The building has been designed to ebb zero-energy. Along with zero waste, which is sent to landfill, the building will also have renewable energy systems, including a 249kw solar roof system, all combined with rainwater harvesting.

During its assessment phase the building had been operating to BREEAM Outstanding levels, a sustainability assessment method for buildings and communities, and should receive final certification at in the future.

Construction started in 2015, including efforts to install solar thermal technology and full LED lighting. Solar energy is used to heat the recycled and harvested water and the facility is fitted with LED lighting. The building and roasting hardware use a wide variety of sustainability initiatives utilised in Costa’s Eco Pod coffee shop.

Even the Coffee beans and their source and transport has been included in the sustainability plans. The coffee is sourced from Rainforest Alliance certified coffee growers; transported by ship to Tilbury Docks, just 14 miles from the new roastery, related residual CO2 emissions.